Asked for his final words, a 42-year-old convicted murderer had one thought to share from the electric chair: "Kiss my ass."

Robert Gleason Jr. became the country's first execution of 2013 when authorities in Virginia pronounced him dead at 9:08 p.m. Wednesday.

Gleason was serving a life sentence for a 2007 murder. While in prison, Gleason also strangled one of his cellmates and another fellow inmate. He vowed to continue killing until state authorities sentenced him to death.